PTL 1, for example, illustrates a known method and apparatus for measuring the ground contact properties of a rolling tire. In PTL 1, a tire is contacted against a flat tire ground contact stand in which a measurement device is embedded, and by displacing the tire ground contact stand horizontally with a drive unit, the ground contact properties of the tire rolling on the measurement device are measured.
The above method and apparatus, however, have the problem that the tire ground contact properties when driving at high speed cannot be reproduced, since it is difficult to displace the tire ground contact stand horizontally at a high speed.
To address this problem, a measurement method and apparatus have been proposed, for example as in PTL 2, to contact a tire against the outer circumference of a rotating drum in which a measurement unit is embedded. Rotating the rotating drum and the tire together allows for measurement while rolling the tire at high speed, thereby easily allowing for measurement of the tire ground contact properties when driving at high speed.